I never really cared to visit Amsterdam, or at least, it wasn’t on the top of my travel bucket list. So when my husband, friends, and I traveled to Germany for a wedding, we collectively decided to travel via high speed train from Paris, and we would visit a few other cities while we were […]
Travel Tips
Giving Paris a Second Chance
I’ll be honest, my first impression of Paris was a bad one. It took two more trips to finally understand why people love the city. When I gave Paris a second chance, we flew into Charles de Gaulle, explored the city for a night and a day, and then took a high speed train to […]
Cruising With Kids: Sea Days and Kids Camp
We cruise A LOT, and sometimes cruise with other families. We don’t have kids of our own, so I’ve asked my dearest friend and fellow cruise mate Tabitha, who has been cruising with her kids since they were wee toddlers, to share what you need to know about cruising with kids. This is the third […]
Cruising With Kids: Preparing for the Cruise and Excursions
We cruise A LOT, and sometimes cruise with other families. We don’t have kids of our own, so I’ve asked my dearest friend and fellow cruise mate Tabitha, who has been cruising with her kids since they were wee toddlers, to share what you need to know about cruising with kids. This is the second […]
Cruising With Kids: Planning, Accommodations, and Boarding
We cruise A LOT, and sometimes cruise with other families. We don’t have kids of our own, so I’ve asked my dearest friend and fellow cruise mate Tabitha, who has been cruising with her kids since they were wee toddlers, to share what you need to know about cruising with kids. This is one of […]
Discover Valdichiana at ICCC
I may be less than 10% Italian, but I LOVE Italian culture: the food, the wine, the fashion, the cars and scooters, the people, the history, and especially visiting the country. I was invited to attend Discover Valdichiana at Houston’s Italian Cultural and Community Center hosted by Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Texas for an evening […]
How I Pack My VinGardeValise DIY Inserts
Usually when we take road trips to Texas wineries, at some point we have to ask for a box to keep our bottles from rolling around the trunk or floorboard. But now that I have a VinGardeValise Petite wine suitcase (holds 8 bottles), which has been great for transport and to keep the wine pseudo-insulated from the Texas […]
What’s a Back-to-Back Cruise?
What IS a back-to-back cruise? I didn’t know either until I booked a girls cruise out of Orlando/Port Canaveral, decided a few months later that cruising again on the same ship with my husband would be cheaper than spending the weekend immediately following the girls cruise in Orlando with him, and called Carnival to figure […]
Hurricane Ready Now, Hurricane Party Later: Being Fully Prepared
Today is the official start of hurricane season. I’ll never be “that guy” frantically buying pop tarts and beer at the grocery store the day before landfall. As a lifelong resident of the Texas Gulf Coast (born in Galveston, actually), I had come to realize at an early age that hurricane season is just a part […]
Downtown Nassau on Your Own: Walking Guide
For Jean and other friends leaving for the Bahamas soon… Last month I cruised the Bahamas on two back-to-back cruises, both times stopping in Nassau. I had visited Nassau before and did the full day Atlantis Resort excursion, but I wanted to see and experience historic (and touristic) Nassau. So this time we […]